Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says the platform will avoid the temptation to focus on longform videos because they aren’t easily shareable.
Instagram is committed to shorter, shareable videos for the foreseeable future.
In a video on the platform he manages, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said the social media platform is designed to connect with friends over common interests by sharing content such as shortform videos.
“It’s part of our core identity to connect people with friends and we don’t want to undermine that by going after longform video,” Mosseri said.
“We try and prioritise shortform video that does (that).”
Mosseri, who has led Instagram for nearly six years, explained that shorter videos are symbiotic with connecting to other people with similar interests because users are more likely to share them, while longer videos are less likely to be shared.
“If you watch a 10- or 20-minute video, you see less content from friends, you interact with your friends less, and you’re actually less likely to send that content or that video to a friend,” Mosseri added.
“So we’re not going to go after that business because it’s part of our core identity to connect people with friends and we don’t want to undermine that by going after longform video.”
That doesn’t mean that users can’t post longer videos on the platform. Technically, you can upload videos up to an hour long and Instagram has previously dabbled in long-form video with IGTV.
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Instagram’s strategy contrasts that of video-sharing rival platform YouTube, which has seen a rise in the consumption of longform and shortform videos.
At the recent IAB Video Summit, YouTube ANZ leader Caroline Oates said the platform has noticed a rise in two viewing trends.
“One is the short form content…and we see that through the rise of shorts with over 2 billion views globally. The other one that I think we’ve seen a parallel, which seems contradictory, is the rise of the long form content. So particularly when we look at CTV we see longer session times. Now about 65 power cent of CTV pieces of content being consumed is more than 21 minutes.”
